Zte Grand X Max+ Plus

ZTE Grand X Max+

MSRP $220.00

"At just $220, the ZTE Grand X Max+ is for those who want the luxury of a large screen without shelling out the big bucks. Its slow processor remains a subconscious toll."

Pros

• It'due south simply $220
• Excellent battery life
• Great camera

Cons

• 720p screen looks dated on half-dozen inches of real manor
• Processor too slow for its software
• Bulky, slippery design makes it hard to concur
• It's a fingerprint magnet

ZTE may exist a proper noun few recognize in the world of smartphones, but it'south actually one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the United States, building many unbranded devices for carriers and other companies. All the same, the Chinese manufacturer is looking to get some recognition with its ZTE Grand X Max+, a half-dozen-inch phablet that's less than 1 3rd the price of a Galaxy Notation 4. But can the Max Plus hold upwards confronting its more expensive, well known peers, or is it a phablet flop waiting to happen?

An absolutely massive phablet

At first glance the ZTE M X Max+ is a smartphone as unwieldy equally its proper name. While ZTE managed to pack a massive half-dozen-inch display into a phablet just 7.9mm thick, the phone'southward pattern lacks any sense of ergonomics or functionality. The big, rectangular pattern is merely about impossible to concord comfortably in your mitt due to its big, precipitous corners and the glossy, wax-like glass finish on the forepart and dorsum of the telephone is a fingerprint magnet that begs you lot to put it in a instance before yous end up dropping it. Although information technology tries to come up across as sleek, the Max+ is i of the most unwieldy phones we've e'er seen. The power button is at least placed on the side of the device in the middle so that you don't accept to stretch your fingers too far to unlock information technology.

The phone runs Android 4.4.iv KitKat with a minimalist, AOSP-esque look, blending Android'southward simple, straightforward interface with some added treats. The lock screen is customized with quick app selections for easy access, and the home screen borrows features from both Samsung and HTC — its wallpaper is a lot similar Samsung's and its flip clock bears an uncanny resemblance to the iconic HTC Sense Clock.

For added flair, ZTE also threw in transition effects that you tin can choose when switching betwixt pages on your home screen. It's nifty, only also at times nauseating, particularly when the processor chokes on an blitheness and the frame rate drops right earlier your eyes.

The Max+ may have an outside that's difficult to swallow, merely overall it'due south a fairly clean Android experience that shines bright with vivid colors and simplistic design that works for Android beginners and experts akin.

A dated, but crisp display

One major caveat with the ZTE Grand X Max Plus is its display. While similarly sized devices similar the Samsung Galaxy Annotation 4 and Google Nexus vi have already jumped into the world of Quad-Hd resolutions, featuring 1440p displays, the Max Plus has a 720p display on its massive 6 inches of real manor.

While the colors remain vibrant and images crisp, everything nonetheless looks dated and cartoonish due to the extremely low pixel density, which is about one-half that of Samsung's Galaxy Notation 4. The wait isn't necessarily pixelated, simply information technology will look distinctly dissimilar and less vivid than a full Quad-HD display. We expected at least a 1080p display for even a upkeep-oriented phablet, simply 720p isn't too bad when y'all consider the upkeep price, the fact that the display has Corning Gorilla Glass three, and everything else packed into this device.

A weak, underwhelming processor

Nether the hood, the Max+ is powered by an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz quad-core processor (the same 1 in phones similar the Moto G. Other phablets, like the Samsung Galaxy Annotation 4, are powered past a much faster Snapdragon 805 2.7GHz quad-cadre processor. Benchmarks reveal just how big a gap in performance the Max+ is from flagship phablets, scoring simply 8,300 on Quadrant compared to the Note 4'south score of 23,000. In a graphics benchmark with 3DMark'due south Ice Tempest Unlimited test, which rates graphical capabilities, the Max+ scored just over 4,000 while the Notation 4 scored about 20,000. This amounts to a lower frame rate in everything from gaming to navigating the UI.

For a budget smartphone, this processor is most what we'd expect to get for effectually $200 in 2013. For 2015, ZTE is pushing the limits of this processor in its Max+. The processor just isn't fast enough to handle the interface ZTE put into the phablet. We've observed the frame rate drop consistently when moving around the home screen, peculiarly when using ZTE'due south custom transition animations. Just if you can get by these hiccups, the Max+ will all the same, in whatsoever case, serve you well. The device does at to the lowest degree accept 2GB of RAM to help keep the pep in its step, also equally 16GB of internal storage for all your games and pictures.

A Neat camera held back by hardware

ZTE went above and beyond its Yard 10 Max+ photographic camera, redefining expectations for a budget smartphone. On the back is a huge 13-megapixel photographic camera with an LED and 4X digital zoom, and on the front is an also impressive five-megapixel camera for decent selfies. Though it lacks optical image stabilization (OIS), this isn't far off from the Notation 4'southward 16-megapixel rear camera and exceeds the Nexus 6's 13-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera.

• i. Grand X Max+
• 2. Galaxy Notation 4

The photographic camera app ZTE included also offers plenty of software functions, including HDR. However the camera app itself is very laggy given the weak processor, and taking photos with HDR enabled volition brand the phone freeze for quite a few seconds to process the epitome. It's also hard to review photos on the camera, every bit their extremely high resolution will look pixelated on the 720p brandish. Zooming in will permit you come across the finer details.

Due to the phone's ergonomics, taking photos with the camera tin take some getting used to. The lack of OIS also requires a steady hand when shooting with this phablet. After some do y'all'll still become great, rich shots that compare to fifty-fifty flagship smartphones. We're not saying this telephone is a perfect match for photophiles, simply for a $220 smartphone the camera leaves u.s. impressed.

Powered by Cricket Wireless

It's besides worth noting that the budget-minded ZTE Max+ is available exclusively at Cricket Wireless, an AT&T-owned upkeep carrier. For $50 a month y'all go 5GB of data with unlimited talk and text – though 4G LTE speeds are capped at 8 Mbps and HSPA+ (Regular "4G") speeds are capped at 4Mbps. The visitor piggybacks on AT&T's network, meaning that while Cricket Wireless service volition be more reliable in suburban or rural areas compared to Sprint or T-Mobile. On the other hand, your speeds will likewise likely be slower in loftier-use areas like NYC. We've observed speeds beneath 1Mbps for LTE during peak hours on Cricket Wireless. This is something to go along in mind if you're considering the Max+ as y'all tin can only buy information technology through Cricket.

Unbeatable battery life

One area the ZTE Max+ stood out in was the phone'southward battery performance. With a 3,200mAh battery, this phablet already has one of the largest batteries on the market, something most expect from phablets due to their larger size and space for a bigger battery. However, devices like the Galaxy Note 4 and LG G3 sometimes endure in battery life due to their excessive pixel resolutions and powerful processors, sucking away precious bombardment life. The ZTE Max+, with its 720p display and older, slower processor, lasts even longer than both these phablets, easily surviving 2 days of pocket-size employ before recharging.

As an added bonus, the ZTE Max+ also features Qualcomm'due south Quick Charge technology. It'due south just the i.0 version, as opposed to the faster 2.0 version on Samsung'southward Galaxy Annotation 4, only it does, according to Qualcomm, charge up to 30 percentage of your battery life in thirty minutes.

Decision

In the stop you get what y'all pay for, and with the ZTE Thou X Max+ yous pay very little for a whole lot of hardware. We're not sure what magic ZTE conjured to brand a half dozen-inch smartphone with slap-up battery life and a 13-megapixel camera for $220, but we remain impressed. Sure, the ZTE Max Plus can't outpower the Samsung Milky way Note four, Google Nexus half-dozen, or probably any other flagship phablet, but for $220 in that location's zero out there quite like it.

Highs

• It's merely $220
• Excellent battery life
• Great camera

Lows

• 720p screen looks dated on half-dozen inches of real estate
• Processor too slow for its software
• Beefy, slippery design makes it hard to hold
• Information technology's a fingerprint magnet

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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/zte-grand-x-max-review/

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